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Up to 60,000 NAMFREL volunteers to be deployed on election day —official
By JOVILAND RITA,GMA NewsAround 50,000 to 60,000 have so far signed up as volunteers for National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) for election day, an official of the poll watchdog said Thursday.
Interviewed on GMA News' Unang Balita, NAMFREL secretary general Eric Jude Alvia said the current number of volunteers is enough to watch over the conduct of the elections.
“Kahit na medyo gipit tayo dahil siguro nakalikop lang kami ng mga higit kumulang 50,000 to 60,000 na volunteers ngayon, pero sapat na yun sa aming palagay sa pagbabantay hanggang sa voting center level,” he said.
(Even if our manpower is a bit limited because we only have more or less 50,000 to 60,000 volunteers, we think that is enough for monitoring even at the voting center level.)
In September 2021, NAMFREL said it would need around 105,000 volunteers
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Alvia said NAMFREL volunteers would not be deployed in voting precincts as other groups will be in charge of these.
According to Alvia, volunteers are instructed only to report untoward incidents and observations to authorities such as the police and the Commission on Elections, and are discouraged to intervene in such matters.
Recently, NAMFREL launched a mobile app that checks election results and connectivity during the conduct of automated polls on May 9.
Citizens can take a picture of the hash code in printed election returns posted outside polling precincts and send it through the mobile application.
According to NAMFREL, if the hash codes from the polling precinct and from the Comelec website do not match, it will be reported to the poll body. —KBK, GMA News